When my trusty Twitter feed alerted me to a collaborative musical effort between Christina Aguilera and M.I.A., I tried, really tried, not to click the link. But I did, and I found a nice danceable song I’ll probably hear in a club sometime soon but will forget about in six months. “Elastic Love,” from Aguilera’s new album, did get me in the mood for teamwork and shared experience, though. (Bonus: As far as I know, unlike in M.I.A.’s “Born Free” video, no gingers were harmed in the making of those beats.)

For Musical Theatre Southwest, it isn’t a question

By Patricia Sauthoff

Theater requires transformation. Just as Erik converts from creepy, underground stalker to crestfallen, understanding admirer in The Phantom of the Opera, it is onstage metamorphosis that keeps curtains rising.

An Aussie lady bikes around an island

By Patricia Sauthoff

From late 1999 to early 2000, Lynette Chiang traveled by folding bicycle through Cuba. An Australian, Chiang wasn’t subject to the restrictions on visiting Cuba that Americans are, giving readers a detailed look at the forbidden land. Her memoir, The Handsomest Man in Cuba, published in 2007, details her solo travels around the island in a quirky first-person account, taken from Chiang’s diary. The Alibi caught up with Chiang in advance of her rolling through Albuquerque for a slide show presentation and talk.